RE: How long was it before you crashed for the first time?
How many minutes into flight 1 would be appropriate for us guys who started in the early sixties! No such thing as a buddy box on reeds!
My six channel (that was rudder, elevator, and throttle) Tri Square got off the ground, climed to 20', and did an inverted split-s (don't the Brits call that manuver a "bunt"?). Post mortem- stuck contact on the transmitter elevator switch. Wiped out two months of paper route savings : (
Jeez, we've come a long way!